- Outdoor columnist Ben Smith says the fact is, and will remain, that evil people do not follow laws.
I made it twelve days. Twelve whole days without hardly saying a word about the atrocity committed at Utah Valley University. I thought it would be best to observe the situation without input for a while and see what all shakes out. Turns out that was probably a pretty good decision. Over the last twelve days, I’ve seen some of the best come out of people and some of the worst. I’ve seen college students gather in droves on their campuses to pray. I’ve also seen students mocking them for doing so. There have been people calling for peace and people calling for violence.
And yes, there have been a lot of people lose their jobs for things they posted online, which is a shame. The First Amendment has been referred to quite a bit over the last twelve days. There are plenty of people that think their First Amendment rights are being violated when they lose their jobs over something they said. Well, they aren’t. The truth is that hateful and vile speech is not good for business and no wise business owner wants to lose business over something their employee said behind a keyboard. You have the right to speak as you please according to the First Amendment, but your employer doesn’t have to lose money because of it. Plus, if you can’t say something nice just don’t say anything at all, right? That’s pretty solid advice that 99% of our mothers probably taught us at a young age.
When the shooting occurred, I thought this might be the type of tragic event that all Americans could look at and think, “Okay, this is wrong.” Well, twelve days later and I’m blown away by the fact that Americans can no longer agree on something that should easily be considered sick and evil. Our country is more divided right now than ever before in history. And yes, that includes the American Civil War in which over six-hundred thousand gave their lives.
I didn’t know Charlie Kirk and I’m not going to act like he was my buddy. I’d seen some of his videos debating on college campuses, but that was about the extent of my knowledge of his life. I do know one thing, though, he didn’t deserve the fate he was dealt no matter what he did or didn’t say. His wife and children didn’t deserve their new lives without their husband and father. The people in the crowd didn’t deserve the horror of watching a man be murdered in front of them, something I’m sure many of them will relive for the rest of their lives. The American people didn’t deserve to witness this cowardly and heinous act online. I think it’s worth mentioning that there are two fathers grieving the loss of their children right now, one to the crime and one to the justice that will be done eventually. I don’t care what your political affiliation is. If you don’t agree with those statements I’d suggest you do some soul searching.
So, what’s next for America? Where do we go from here? I mentioned the First Amendment being tossed around a lot. The Second Amendment has been a hot topic, also. Obviously, the first cry from politicians is more gun control. It’s always more gun control. They just don’t get it. A gun does not grow legs, jump out of the closet, run downtown, and kill anybody. Evil people do. Guns have been around in this country for over two-hundred years. Why are they now a problem? They aren’t. People are the problem. We don’t have a gun problem in America, we have a people problem, and our politicians don’t seem to understand that. And I’m not sure how you get them to understand.
At this point, I don’t think we could get rid of guns in America if we tried. There are currently just under 400 million guns owned by Americans. If we didn’t sell another one in a store there’d still be enough guns and ammo flowing through this country to almost last forever. What about stricter background checks? Don’t you already have to pass a background check to purchase a new firearm? I’ve read about keeping people flagged as extremists from being able to purchase a firearm, which I don’t think is a bad thing. But who decides what an extremist is? The fact is, and will remain, that evil people do not follow laws. No matter how hard you try, you cannot legislate morality. From what I’ve read, the lowlife that killed Charlie Kirk shot him with his grandfather’s hunting rifle. There’s not a single piece of legislation that’s been introduced that would have prevented that one from happening.
Knowing that gun control is a far too gone subject to even consider at this point, what can we do? I don’t have all of the answers, but I think a good start would be to teach your children to love their neighbor. Love the people that are different than you. Love the people that look different than you. This doesn’t mean you have to agree with them. The Bible doesn’t say “agree with your neighbor.” It simply states to love. Teach your children that it’s okay to disagree. I’m sure there are a couple of you that will disagree with this column, and that’s fine with me. I invite you to write to me on why you feel like you do, and we can debate it, just like Charlie would.
Ben Smith
